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2019-03-16 - They're Always After Me Gold!
On a typical day of a typical week, Molly's isn't the type of place that draws in huge crowds. It's typically filled with blue-collar regulars there to get their drink on after another long day putting time in at a job that works them too hard and pays them too little. All that's changed tonight. Tonight Molly's is hop, skipping and jumping. It's standing room only and green beer flowing from the taps. The place is decked out in green shamrocks and tacky leprechaun cutouts. It's also very clear that some of the crowd has been on an all day pub crawl that should have ended at noon and it's now many, many hours past noon. Wonder Girl is currently on the prowl and wary. Bar crawling is *not* her thing. But, her day had started with the 'Dad turned you into a WHAT and then did WHAT' and had gotten progressively more 'Oh Hera Daaaadddd!' and so here she was, really, really not wanting to have to yank out her own Lasso. Peter...doesn't go to pubs. Ever, really. But he had cause to celebrate. THE USES OF REDUNDANT CYBERNETIC WEIGHT-ASSISTING PROSTHESES was the name of the paper, a thesis that had taken six months to put together. But today, he had received word. He could now refer to himself as Peter Parker, Doctor of Neuroscience. He just wished Harry was here to see it. But Harry had emailed him and told him to check out the pub. For him. He looked to Kara, then said, "Well...here we are." Kara Zor-El comes into Molly's with Peter, aka Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, after Wonder Girl and Bullet enter. "Okay, can someone tell me now why I was told to dress all in green today?" She looks at her clothes. Green midriff shirt, green skirt, green shoes. "It's not usually my color, I feel like I'm stealing Hal or Kyle's theme." The crowd is loud and boisterous, but everyone seems to be in good spirits and having a grand old time. There's no sign of trouble even when beer is spilled. So maybe tonight isn't such a bad night be be out for a pub crawl, even if pubs aren't the normal routine. In fact, the atmosphere in Molly's tonight is SO upbeat that it's almost... contagious. Everyone BE HAPPY. Is it the drink or something more that has everyone over the moon with giddy joy? Seriously, listen to all that laughter. Over what? Some people are nearly doubled over with laughter and in tears. Did someone tell a really really good joke? Kara can probably hear the sound that is Cassandra Sandsmark muttering about 'Dad' and 'Bad Aim' and 'where Did it End up' and... Given Kara's knowledge of Cassie's dad she may or may not want to listen in further without having bad mental images. Cassandra is, for now, not seemingly reacting to or even aware of the general chipperness in the area. She has horrible things on the edge of her mind. Peter looks around. This place is really rocking. He wanted to find a table, sit down, and he couldn't wait to get to the part where people would make fun of him for ordering a diet Pepsi, because he is a good eight months from being old enough to drink. "Any table that looks good?" he says to Kara, having missed Cassie at her place in the pub. Kara Zor-El nods, then looks over at Cassie. "Wait ... one second." she says before heading over to Peter, tugging him along. "Cassie? Hey.... Peter got me to come to this place because it's some sort of holiday. What are doing here?" Some people in the crowd are literally howling with laughter. It's to the point that that laughter is beginning to sound almost hysterical in nature. They just can't seem to stop. Well, it's better than a bar brawl? Must just be something in the water... or the beer? Or maybe in the air. The air? Something in the air... ...the shimmering, shiny air? What's that smell? Grass and? And? Sheep manure? Wait, what's that sound? A voice? A lyrical, if slightly high pitched voice? "If three wishes be what ye seek, then my secret ye all should keep It pains me to say, I be in of assistance. ...but to help me means to travel quite the distance. Ye see, someone stol'd me pot of gold. Me thinks I needs a group of heroes, brave and bold. Ye merely need to raise yer hand to be taken to a far away land."'' Wonder Girl's comment over to Kara is, "Well dad was sort of doing his thing over where he, err, is doing something that's going to get.." Before the sudden music coming up through the air then has her full attention and a happy change of topic. The laughter sounds.. Eerie? Joyous? Some mixture of both? The song is the type that has one foot of her's tapping along with it unconsciously and her hand on her waist then.. Just cautious and almost dabbling towards her lasso. "Uhm.. Kara, is it just me or do all of them sort of sound like.." Peter looks puzzled. He's Irish, so the song seems familiar. But at the same time, he wonders if this is a good reason never to take up drinking. "Kara...something weird is happening," he says, not aware that his Irish is showing up in his accent. Kara Zor-El looks around for the source of the high-pitched voice. "You mean the disembodied voice that is asking for our help... in rhyme? Yes I'm pretty sure something weird is happening." she says, trying to discern where it's coming from. And still, no one told her what holiday it was or why she had to wear all green. The middle aged gentleman standing to the right of poor Peter doesn't seem to be caught up in the giddy, hysterical laughter that's taken over the majority of the bar patrons. He raises his hand. The air shimmers and shines around him until he's completely obscured by the rainbow hue of it all and POOF, when it clears the man is just gone. The middle aged gentleman standing to the right of poor Peter doesn't seem to be caught up in the giddy, hysterical laughter that's taken over the majority of the bar patrons. He raises his hand. The air shimmers and shines around him until he's completely obscured by the rainbow hue of it all and POOF, when it clears the man is just gone. "''Only one will stand brave and tall? Cowards, the rest of ye all! Down on me luck and can find but one hero? Me thinks that's at least better than zero? There's still time to make up your mind. Me pot of gold, ye will help me find?"'' Wonder Girl looks at Kara, "In fairness that's hardly weird by what we have.." She goes to let out a sigh, "At the very least we're not having an incident where Raven accidentally empowers Starfire's cooking and.." She goes quiet as she blinks down over at the small man appearing, disappearing, and... "Well, we're dealing with a Sidhe. And there is '''always' something at the other end of that. So why are you asking our help and what are the exact circumstances of it?" Peter's not totally ignorant. Aunt May was a second-gen Irish and she had told him stories when he was a child. He always tried to analyze magic but had given it up. Magic simply didn't make sense. Now, he was face-to-face with it. But someone is still needing help, and this sounded like theft. And theft was a crime. So, he stood up, facing the gentleman, and said, "Kara, is this your first leprechaun?" Because hey, you never know... Kara Zor-El blinks when the man disappears. She didn't really understand what was happening, but it felt like magic or Mxyzpltlk. "I swear to Rao, if this is Mxyzptlk..." She looks at Peter. "What in Rao's name is a leprechaun? Okay guys, I don't know what a Sidhe OR a Leprechaun is, but that guy just disappeared after he raised his hand to that voice." Kara Zor-El looks around. "Okay look whoever you are, we'll help but bring that guy back and show yourself first." Oh if this was Mxy she was gonna figure a way for him to say Kltlpzyxm faster than you could say.... well... that. Peter nodded. "Okay. In Irish legend, a leprechaun is a wee gent who'll hide a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Since rainbows technically, normally, have no end, people would run themselves ragged trying to reach the end of a rainbow. But throw magic inta th' mix, and ye well have a pot o' gold, watch-guarded by a fellow much like yer Mxy fellow. Usually, th' stories involve people tricking th' Little People out of their gold, or outright stealin' it. By me watch an' warrant, this seems like th' latter." Yes, his Irish is getting worse. "Show meself, whatever do you mean? Right in front of ye, waiting to be seen!" That disembodied voice seems to be becoming a little agitated. ...and all around, the crowd is still laughing, but now the laughter definitely doesn't sound joyous and the expressions on faces seem less than happy. They simply cannot stop. Some are even beginning to hyperventilate. A couple climbs onto the bar, much to their own dismay, and begins to dance a jig. "That man be brave, that man be bold... why should I bring him back and do as ye told? He's to help me find me gold. ME GOLD, ME GOLD!" Kara Zor-El rubs her temples, after watching Peter's brogue get worse. "Okay look, we'll find your gold IF you bring that guy back and stop doing whatever you're doing to these people right now! Okay?" The Kryptonian teenager peers in front of her with every type of vision those Kryptonian eyes are capable of looking in, although 'magic vision' is not one of Kara's powers. Wonder Girl tenses over then and resists the urge over to say something not nice, "So, you're going to take the people away and not give them back until your.. Missing gold is recovered? And do we have anything to guarantee that from you?" She's very, very cautious now - namely because with the Sidhe, particularly on THier Days.. Well, paranoia came easily. She would then go to try (and fail) to sweep through the room to try and locate where the voice was coming from. Kara Zor-El raises her hand. "Look? See Mr. Invisible person? I'm volunteering too, as long as you stop making these people laugh, it's beginning to hurt them!" If he didn't stop doing whatever they were doing, Kara was very close to moving each of the people out of the pub and several blocks away, in case the magic or whatever effect had a limited range. Magic. Kara never could understand just how to deal with magic. Even when she was around Raven. Even when on an mystic island of Amazon women. "To be in the band, ye have to raise yer hand, to be in the band, ye have to raise yer hand, raise yer hand." The disembodied voice gets louder toward the end and POOF, a few more people that didn't seem as taken with the flood of laughter raise their hands and... disappear. "TO BE IN THE BAND!" The more frantic the leprechaun seems to become, the more people begin to dance and the harder they all laugh. For her efforts, Kara is met with two disembodied eyes, complete with big bushy red eyebrows peering back at her. ... and then she disappears in a haze of shimmering rainbow air. Peter looked around carefully. "Whoever you are...stop making them do that." He felt the buzz, off to his side. "Sir, I'll help if you need help, just stop HURTING..." Then the leprechaun spoke, and Peter finally got the hint, and his hand pistoned up into the air. ... POOF, there goes Peter! Oh $##!!. Something Not Nice spoken in Hera's Name goes through Cassandra's head and as the Leprechaun speaks she goes to quickly wave her hand up as well then as her friends vanish. Instinct overcomes training in this case to not leave her friends alone Wonder Girl is raises her hand... ... POOF! Cassandra's turn! ...to end up in a cold, dark cave. The only light comes from a single candle in the middle of the round space. At least it's a fairly large candle? It's enough light to barely see one another by anyway. Five of the patrons from the bar are here as well, but they're just normal old people and they are obviously terrified. They're huddled around the light of the candled talking in hushed and frantic whispers. "Where the hell are we?" "I don't know, what do we do?" "Should we leave the cave and see?" Kara Zor-El looks around. Kara was able to see rather well even in near pitch-darkness. "Okay... people, everyone be calm, okay? We're in some sort of cave... we're going to get you out of here though." She looks around for an exit to the cave, then calls out, "Okay, Leprechaun or Mxyzptlk or Sidhe or whatever, can you show yourself NOW? And also send these other people back?" She pauses. Maybe politeness before violence? "Please?" Peter looked around, then headed over to the five men. He says reassuringly, "Easy, boyos. You can relax now...just don't go daft. Th' real heroes are here." He points to Cassie and Kara. Wonder Girl goes to mutter something about deep, dark caves and narrows her eyes and looks about. "Kara, if there's anything hidden here can you see it?" Trusting the Kryptonian can probably spot something better than the rest of them combined as she glances over at Peter, "Uhm, sorry, but can you make those they're okay?" she points at the other civilians that were teleported here. Kara Zor-El pauses again, looking at Peter with a quizzical look he probably can't see on her face. Then adds, "And can you make my boyfriend stop talking like that?" Kara says to Cassie, "The civilians are fine, just.... really looking scared. I'm looking to see which way is out of this cave." Their host steps out of the shadows. He is, indeed, a leprechaun. ...a very sad looking leprechaun. "Send them back I cannot, not until I have me pot." ...really, his rhyming abilities are pretty atrocious. "It won't be easy ye see, it be guarded by a weeping willow tree. Before ye say it, Potter's tree it is not. Cry and cry and cry ye will, until ye die and rot." Morbid much, little dude? One of the patrons of the bar bellows, "WHO SLIPPED A MICKEY INTO MY DRINK?" ...while the others just stare gape mouthed at the little dude dressed in... red not green. Peter sighs. "Jes' you boys settle in, wait a trifle, and then we'll be back in trig time." He straightens, then heads back to Kara and Cassie, sparing the man a glance. "Sounds like a challenge. After what I've seen an' done, I ain't got a spare tear t' give." Kara Zor-El pauses and walks over to the leprechaun and grabs him by the scruff of his collar. "Okay... first things first..." Kara says, her eyes glowing red and firing a line of heat vision as a trail leading to the exit of the cave. "Peter, Cassie, get these people and lead them out of the cave." she says as she heads towards the exit with the leprechaun. Wonder Girl gives a nod to Kara, "All right." Deferring to Kara in this given the Kryptonian's senses will hopefully let her guide them out the best. "So, how did you lose your pot?" The question is given ever so casually to the leprechaun. "I take it you weren't particularly lucky over when it came to keeping your charms?" When he's grabbed, the Leprechaun goes limp like a rag doll and just starts bawling. Melodramatic once. He sniffles and snots and attempts to wipe his nose on Kara's person somewhere, anywhere a nose can reach. He JUST WANTS HIS GOLD BACK AND EVERYONE IS BEING SO MEAN! Cassie's words make him cry all the harder. Outside the cave, there's a lake, in the middle of the lake is an island, at the center of the island? A GIANT weeping willow tree. All of the patrons save the one that yelled, seem to be in shock enough to just be led and commanded. But there's always that ONE guy. This one is young, probably a college jock, likely not too smart? He bolts for the lake. "I'll get the gold!" Seems he's going to try to dive on in and swim for it. Peter blinks. They shoulda left them back in the cave. At least they'd be safe. "Kara, get that guy before th' tree has 'is guts fer garters!" Kara Zor-El hands the leprechaun over to Wonder Girl. "Hold him!" she says before taking off at superspeed to get in the way of the college jock. "Wait!" she says, cutting him off at the pass. She wasn't sure what guts for garters was, but anything involving guts being had couldn't be good. Wonder Girl lets out a yelp over as she hears the command over from Kara. "Got it!" The wails of the Leprechaun have Wonder Girl going to quickly try and lash out with her lasso - if she can trying to quickly tether him up. "If you want us to help you then you have to show that you're acting in good -faith-!" Hopefully she can get a loop of her lasso over him, at least! Which is going to be hard if he flees or teleports! Somewhere amid the 'hand off', the little leprechaun blows his nose on Kara. Gross. He'll do the same to Cassie, given the chance. Oddly enough, he's lassoed easily enough... almost too easily Did someone release the Kraken? By the time Kara cuts the jock off, they're within a few yards of the lake. Wait, no, that's not a Kraken! The GINORMOUS thing that rises silently from the depths of the lake to tower over our heroes and the sniveling leprechaun looks like... no, it can't be? Well, it probably isn't THE Loch Ness Monster, but it sure looks like a direct relative. Maybe it's Nessie's sister Bessie? Its voice is definitely feminine when it speaks. "Please do come in, the water is simply DIVINE." Why does it sound as if she's leaving off the part about not having a good human for dinner in weeks? And how is it TALKING? Look there... jocks can piss themselves in fear! EYES TO BRAIN: RE-PROCESS. MASSIVE KERNEL FAILURE. Well, Peter's reality check just bounced. Oddly enough, he doesn't seen to be panicking, or gibbering in fear, or even cowering. And this is a good time for cowering, lemme tell ya. "Ma'am," Peter's mouth says independently of his vapor-locked mind, "Is the leprechaun's pot of gold there?" Wonder Girl gets her lasso over around the end of the leprechaun, and then goes to query quickly, "What is going /on here/?" Hopefully the magic of her lasso is enough to break through whatever is going on. If the leprechaun is geas'ed or under some sort of command.. Kara Zor-El makes sure to get in between the jock with the temporary urinary disorder and the plesiosaur-looking creature. "I don't think I'd agree with you." she says, backing off and taking the jock with her. She was reasonably sure that a dinosaur trying to eat her would probably break its teeth, but... y'know... magic. Who knows. Kara Zor-El looks back at Wonder Girl. "Pretty sure he wants us to check out that tree where his gold is. And... apparently it's guarded by that tree out in the middle of the lake on that island. Because.... okay I don't get how a tree guards anything actually so I'm going to gloss over that since there's a dinosaur here right now." She looks over at the jock. "Get back with the others right now." "Why yes, his little pot of trinkets is on the island," Bessie - yes we'll just call her Bessie - replies to Peter. "Why don't you come a little closer child. "I can ride you across the water on my back to go fetch it," she coos. We all know how that story ends, right? "She stole it," the leprechaun snivels and sniffles, not even trying to hold up the rhyme game any longer... Thank Goodness? Bessie's head snaps in the direction of the leprechaun. "Well, maybe if you hadn't brought home that HARLOT," she snaps. Wait, wut? Seriously? "He's lucky I didn't have her for lunch." "You evil witch!" the leprechaun bellows! Hopefully holding the leprechaun over in the lasso, Cassandra ahems to him, "Language. And why pray tell did the.. Interruption of your domestic bliss require you to kidnap those whom were uninvolved?" Her tone is firm. "Whatever difficulties you have, they are your own to solve or to decide to go your separate ways over if it is that harsh you both believe." Her eyes narrow. "And whatever other person he brought here is also caught up in things. She is to be released of her own recognizance. OR whomever they are." Peter looks from Bessie to the leprechaun. For the luvva Jim Belushi, DON'T THINK TOO DEEPLY ON IT. "PLEASE don't tell me I'm in a magical realm because of a fecking DOMESTIC DISPUTE..." Peter groans. "Ma'am, out ov all due respectin', yer gent decided to hurt a bunch of people that did never-you-mind to him. Ah'm sure ye 'ave yet troubles, but can ye talk to each other instead of takin' things?" He points to Kara. "That there woman, the love of me sainted life, loves me, but we TALK to each other, we LISTEN to each other, and we don't go TAKIN' things out o' sheer spite. Do ye love each other?" Kara Zor-El pauses. "Actually I can get to the island without having to ride on the back of something that's going to try to eat me, but thanks. In any ca- wait.... harlot? Are ... what?" She looks back at the leprechaun, then at the dinosaur. "Are you two..." She motions with her finger together. "I mean how does that even.... " She shakes her head. "You know what? I don't want to know." She was going to just fly up and to the island, but needed to hear the rest of this first. "She IS an evil witch. Really, she's an evil witch," the leprechaun wines. Why does he suddenly sound more like he's from Brooklyn than Ireland? "Have at it," snorts Bessie. "I'm sure the willow will enjoy the company. I just hope you don't plan on leaving." That poor college kid. He's now curled up on the ground in the fetal position. Seems all words save, "It isn't real," have been lost from his vocabulary. "As if you're all roses and rainbows, my darling," she quips at the leprechaun. "You do remember that time in Brussels, don't you? That's how we got into this mess in the first place." Seriously, what is happening here? Wonder Girl is definitely confused - whatever is happening is warping things in ways that she can't keep up with. So the girl goes to close her eyes then and tries to figure out the next thing to do.. She deftly unclasps the lasso.. And then goes to if she can loop it through the air at Bessie. Hopefully closing her eyes in the process and letting her instincts and training guide her and get /some/ sort of response from the Lady Ness Monster.. Peter put a hand to his forehead. "Would ya two stop SNIPIN' at each other? Heaven above and Hell below, are ya going t' claw each other's eyes out or try to mend things?" He sounds exasperated. Once you get past the magic and the mythical, they are just another couple squabbling and pot-shotting each other instead of talking. The effects of the lasso have Bessie talking, very much to her own surprise. "It's his fault that we're in this mess, cursed to these horrid and ridiculous forms until that confounded tree is destroyed." Her eyes widen. She's surprised yes, but not a bad surprise. It's as if she's finally able to unload something she's not been allowed to speak until now. "It was him that thought it would be a good idea to steal that hag's grimoire!" "Well maybe if you hadn't botched that teleportation spell we could have gotten away," the 'leprechaun' barks back. In unison, they both say, "Destroy that damned tree and we'll send everyone back safe and sound." Kara Zor-El crosses her arms. "Look. Let me get this straight. The ... leprechaun.... is married to the dinosaur, and the leprechaun had an affair with ... a witch.... so the dinosaur stole the leprechaun's gold, which is now guarded by a tree." She pauses. "And the dinosaur is actually not an actual dinosaur but a woman leprechaun." She takes a moment. "Okay I'm going to go destroy a tree to get the gold to give to a leprechaun so a dinosaur and leprechaun can be turned back into whatever they were before." Kara sighs as she floats up into the air. "And sadly this isn't even the weirdest thing to happen to me since I got to this planet." she says as she takes off over the water towards the island with the tree. Wonder Girl just looks over at Kara with sympathy and understanding, "Believe me, you have my total.." She goes quiet then in the hopes that time spent less distracting Supergirl will be time less stalling on going home. "I will hold the two of you to your word and further that to not let your dispute spill out to the other realms and threaten those who are uninvolved." She warns, well aware that her statement hardly has any sort of power behind it nor specificity. Peter had to look up at her as she rose into the air. *No. Falling in love with me has to be the weirdest thing, hands down.* That Lasso of Truth certainly comes in handy. Of course it was magic or some such. He was going to celebrate the end of his college career, wasn't he? How the deuce did he get HERE from THERE? The closer Kara gets to the tree, the sadder she becomes. Seriously, what's the point? What's the meaning of life? There is none. There's no meaning, no point, it's all just terrible and meaningless. Why bother... why even bother. Both Bessie and the Leprechaun fall silent as they watch Kara move out over the water with baited breath. "Think she'll make it," he whispers. "No one has in over a hundred years of St. Patrick's days," she replies quietly. They both turn toward Peter and snort. "Honeymoon's never last, sugar," Bessie comments. Peter looks back to Bessie. "That's because LOVE has to grow up, too. It matures and deepens. Passion can fade, even for a limitless lass like her, but you learn to love like adults...and realize how much better it can be." Kara Zor-El finds herself getting more and more depressed, the closer she gets to the island. What's the point in going all the way to the island. This sucks! Plus she's wearing these green clothes and no one will tell her why she has to wear them on this day or what holiday this is supposed to be? Besides, after they get back it'll just go back to the tabloids writing about how Kara is obviously under mind control to explain her going out with Peter Parker, and yet no one seems to say anything about her cousin's relationships, and he once dated a MERMAID! I mean... seriously he dated a mermaid once! And no one even bats an eye at that! "OH SCREW IT!" she yells out, then fires a burst of heat vision from her eyes at the tree. Wonder Girl just winces over at the sudden flare and slowly, slowly turns to face the leprechaun? Leprechaunette? Leprechettes? "I will consider you two bound by your promise now that you have been freed to both free the others and to not take your dispute -or- other issues outside of your own domain." A weak threat, and far from specific - and probably not binding in the slightest given the chaotic structure of Sidhe and Fae agreements. So it needs more.. "Or I would be more than happy to let the Son of Cronus know that you are requiring marital aid.." When that blast hits the tree, it actually screams. The sound is long and loud and carries with it all the sadness and despair the blasted thing has been throwing at people for all the years it's stood guard here. As it's destroyed and the last of its wailing cry dies to leave deafening silence, the leprechaun and the lake monster are replaced by two middle aged, decently attractive human beings. It seems the slighted hag's curse has been lifted? "Well, it's about damned time," the artist formally known as Bessie mutters before she snaps her fingers and mutters a quick incantation. Everyone that belongs in the bar will find themselves back in the bar as suddenly as they were gone from it. Anyone that is particularly perceptive will notice an old painting hanging over the bar itself. ... a painting of a cave's entrance situated on the banks of a lake that holds an island with a weeping willow at its center, the color fading quickly. Soon it will likely be a blank canvas. Peter looks around, hoping to see the others have returned--both the super-types and the normals. He sighs, then says, "Well...THAT happened." Kara Zor-El finds herself back in the pub, next to Peter and Cassie. "Okay.. look... I still have two questions, Peter." "Why did I have to wear green, and what holiday is today supposed to be?"